


Acquiescence

by 3LevisInATrenchcoat



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Shingeki no Kyojin Chapter 132: Wings of Freedom Spoilers, feast your eyes and feed your delusions, hanchan stans come in, the levihans cannot accept this turn of events, this will cure your pain
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:33:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26774449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3LevisInATrenchcoat/pseuds/3LevisInATrenchcoat
Summary: On Judgement Day, the tide brought someone strange.
Relationships: Levi & Hange Zoë, Levi/Hange Zoë
Comments: 96
Kudos: 179





	1. Seeker

Thick ash suffocated the sunrise and the air was parched by the lingering heat. The grey fallout blanketed each surface and penetrated every crevice of the harbour. The results of the catastrophe stretched in every direction as far as the eye can see, except there were no eyes left to bear witness. The pungent smell of burned meat pierced the senses.  
A lone observer dragged their body through the remnants of the city structures, hands shaking from the ongoing assault on their lungs. Keeping their expectations low, they located another body underneath a plank of wood and climbed over to check its pulse. Three, four, five seconds they counted and detected no such thing, so they added another to the mental list of bodies found so far.  
As their coughs got more erratic, their fight or flight response slowly returned; they knew they would have to head back soon, however, probably, maybe, just one more body could be found, just one more person could be saved, so they advanced.

A wretched figure was sprawled on the seashore.

The inquirer slowly moved across the sand as a gust of wind blasted in their face. Their mask could only get so tight and it was doing as much as it could in blocking foreign particles, so they knew they didn’t have a choice but to bear the onslaught. They reached out to turn over the body before them.

A lacerated woman was sprawled on the seashore.

Gloves off, two fingers on her neck, three, four- a pulse.  
As if awoken by the revelation, a rush of adrenaline filled their body. Everything already seemed fast, but it had to be faster, so in a broken voice, the saviour screamed.

“I found one!”

It was the voice of a girl, and she knew she couldn’t carry the woman alone, so she needed backup. She didn’t want to be powerless, hence the seconds it took her crew to appear felt like minutes in her head. The victim was burned but drenched in seawater – was she brought here by the tide? Did she try to swim away as the titans approached? Her clothes were scorched but she could make out that they were strange. The buckles were strange, and the emblems were strange too. The woman’s circumstances were strange.  
Men ran with stretchers and other men prepared medical equipment to aid the survivor whilst the girl watched and held her breath before another gust of wind snapped her back to reality. Now that she’s done her duty, she was forced to care about her own survival. She ran towards the buildings away from the beach, looking over her shoulder only once to check if everything went smoothly, before disappearing in an alleyway.

From a great distance, someone was watching the woman sprawled on the seashore.

The air was clear and the evening serene, and Hange deduced she was in an afterlife because the sunset was just a little too perfect for it to not come at a cost. Golden rays warmed her skin while the sky’s mellow violets kept her heartbeat at a steady pace. She lay on a settee outside a cottage, collecting her thoughts. Nothing was painful, her right eye returned to its former glory and logically, it was exactly what she imagined the other side to look like; not that she was ever religious, but no major topic was allowed to be left unexplored. Moblit, Erwin, Mike, Nanaba, their teams, they were all here – somewhere here, she wasn’t sure of the layout of this place – and they were very happy to see her, they followed her on her perilous journey since they got here themselves. Some time ago, maybe it was minutes or a few hours, she finished telling everyone what happened. The story was not in chronological order but more so an act of catharsis. Hange’s commander side yearned to share how hard it was bearing the heavy load of responsibility, and Hange’s human side longed to tell them that she missed them, and that she never felt like it was enough. At last, she could, and it was a desperate attempt at relief. She did what she wanted.

And yet, she was still dead.

Survey Corps members have a one hundred percent mortality rate and this grim reminder haunted her for the past fifteen years, but it was always someone else that died. She outlived everyone and this licensed her to believe that maybe, she did in fact have a chance to see the resolution of this conflict. Perhaps, sometimes she could be a little selfish and hope that her and someone else survive till the end. Nevertheless, those thoughts quickly gave way to her hope that humanity will persevere. After all, their cause was larger than life and hers was lived on borrowed time. Her hours were up, she did her duty, Levi and the others could advance because of it.

Levi wasn’t nearby, and she hasn’t fully accepted that yet. This was still out of sight, out of mind. Hange didn’t want to think about that now, she had to digest her circumstances first. Her companion would come home soon, surely, and she could slip into being herself again, as could he, and they would spend the night talking, and – since when was she holding her breath?  
It seemed like only seconds ago the sunset glistened on the horizon, but now the sun was set and she was surrounded by a comforting, velvety darkness. She came to her senses and turned around towards the lit-up cottage, heading inside.  
The rooms here were odd, because she swore that before she went outside she was in a living room, and now that she was back in, she was in the Survey Corps’ common area. Shouldn’t the rooms be the same? She guessed that didn’t matter. She could think about that later.  
Erwin sat at his usual seat at the table, looking straight at her with a smile.

“Hange, you wanted to flick through the botanical encyclopedia, didn’t you?”

She didn’t know that she did until then.

“Ah, Erwin, even now you know what to say,” she replied half relieved, half curious.

She sat by his side and forgot about whatever she was thinking a minute ago. Flicking through the pages, she noted that each plant she either knew, or was an amalgamation of familiar structures.

“It’s because you’ve already studied every plant on Marley,” he reassured her.

Hange believed that the pursuit of knowledge is never over, but maybe she really did spend more time on newfound flora than previously thought. What plants grew here, she wondered? Scratch that, why wasn’t she asking the important questions? 

“How does this place work?”

“Well, this could be the Survey Corps’ next mission.”

She burst out laughing at his proposal. “Ha, Erwin! Right, you’re the commander again! We actually have a chance if it’s you,” she retorted, giving him a self-depreciating but honest high five.  
“You’re saying this as if you hadn’t done well yourself.”

“Well,” she hesitated, before exposing herself further. “Many would disagree, that I was capable. Some said you would have done things differently.”

“I don’t know what I would have done”. His hand rubbed the back of his neck, as if looking to rub away the shared sense of inferiority in the room. He looked at the floor, she looked right at him. Hange didn’t want to admit it to herself, but this comforted her because it meant it wasn’t just her who couldn’t find a solution, no solution must have existed. This revelation put her at ease, she wanted Erwin to feel like that too. Like they both dedicated their hearts.

“Oh yes, I remember! I’ve been wanting to tell you about New Year’s two years ago!”

“I’m listening.”

And so she spoke about trivial things that exhilarated her, and all of a sudden it felt like nothing has ever changed, that this was a regular Sunday and everyone was home. That room was their tranquillity base and they had all the time in all the worlds combined.  
She didn’t know when dawn arrived; if she contemplated on it, she would have come to the conclusion that it shouldn’t have come for many hours, but that wasn’t important, that could be examined later. Gazing at the cloudless sky ahead, she dragged her chair to the window, propped her chin up on her palm with her elbow resting on the window sill, and smiled, thinking about absolutely nothing.

The engine buzzed steadily. Armin and Mikasa sat by the window in silence, while the others rested near the tail, occupied with their own thoughts. Everyone was painfully aware of their reality, yet no one dared to speak. The only acceptable noise was anything produced by the plane – even when they weren’t directly looking at him, they could feel how heavy the atmosphere was. He was sitting on a stool, hair covered his face and his bandages needed changing, but he was still. Minutes dragged like hours and Armin felt the pressure of speaking up, attempting to foolishly conjure up any remnants of the soldiers’ morale. Maybe he would come up with something any minute now.

But Levi rose.

Despite the engine’s rattle, it felt like they could have heard a pin drop. Their eyes darted to him, their breaths were held, and their bodies turned rigid.  
Without meeting their gaze, he turned to the storage room. 

They watched, and he didn’t look up. They didn’t see this kind of gait from him before – slow, steady but somehow stiff and apprehensive. His hand pressing on the handle seemed gentle and yet firm, pressing on it all the way down before disappearing behind the door.

His chest was tight, and both his heart and lungs battered at the same pace. The room would be completely dark if it weren’t for the faint emergency light overhead, and yet his eyes were wide open.  
Now that he was alone his emotions rapidly grew loose, the pent-up sorrow throttled him and his back slid down the door. A cacophony of all the events from the last few minutes played, replayed and played again, he saw and heard how Hange left, how she burned, how she pleaded, how she fell, how she said his name and how she disappeared.

“Fuck, Hange, fuck!” he shouted, his nails repeatedly dug in and scratched his thighs, shivering, eyes searching the room. He looked for something to break, something he could do to create an illusion of control. He spotted a canister of unknown origin and his mind told him to crush it, but he knew he didn’t know what it was, so he couldn’t, he had to restrain himself, and that was hard. All of a sudden his emotions morphed into desperation, so clumsily, he stumbled to the luggage. He recognised her bag just by touch alone and cradled it back to his spot by the door. He frantically tried to open it, the zipper got stuck so he yanked it open and broke it in the process.

“Sorry, Hange… sorry,” he muttered apologetically, but it was obvious the apologies were for something else.

He didn’t know what to reach for. Clothes, a notebook, hair ties, all the memories flushed into his head. He washed these clothes for her himself, because she wouldn’t; he listened to her about the contents of the notebook even when she got carried away; he used those hair ties to tie her hair after bath. He chose her shirt, and even though a small part of him knew he shouldn’t, he lay down on the floor before clutching the cloth close to him. It smelled just like her.

Consequently, as if a switch was turned on, Levi started crying.

The onslaught was uncontrollable, so he sobbed, choking on his tears. He breathed in Hange’s scent between his shallow breaths, knowing sooner or later it will be gone and one more tangible trace of her will vanish forever.

Come to think of it, no one’s been with him as long as Hange has. His mother died when he was young and he couldn’t quite comprehend it, Isabel and Farlan were there for a few years and he cherished them greatly, so was Erwin, but within the last few years, Hange’s beat the record for surviving the longest by his side. She’s been with him ever since he joined the Survey Corps. He must have been a curse. Everything he touched, died. And yet, he thought Hange broke the spell with her strange but comforting disposition, with her late night talks, with the silent promises they told each other even if they knew they weren’t allowed to. This was the exact reason why; there was always the unspeakable possibility of the worst scenario. As time went on, nights when he wished they could verbalise what they felt grew more common. He knew that even with practice at his best he couldn’t be half as eloquent as Hange speaking without preparation, yet sometimes, when he lay in bed with nothing to do, he would return to an imaginary world where he’d have a chance to share his official confession. He polished and changed it in his head, striving to make it as best as he could to give her what she deserved. He was preparing for the possibility of one day being able to present her this confession, his magnum opus, even if she understood his intent without a single word. Time didn’t exist in this reality when he imagined their time together – he would imagine all sorts of things, and because his quarters were usually locked, he felt safe to keep dreaming like a boy.

But this was the worst scenario.

The floor was frigid and the dark encapsulated him as if it was a cut off from the rest of the world. The confined space felt claustrophobic and he clung to Hange’s clothes for dear life until his fingers went numb. He was so pathetic, he thought. He was so used to keeping her out of trouble, somehow always one step behind her, making sure she was safe even if she didn’t notice he was there. Likewise, he failed her time and time again, like the last time he failed to kill Zeke and she had to risk her life to protect him. She was meant to use that massive brain of hers and he was meant to be the brawn, she had enough on her plate. He was so, so weak. All he could do was watch as she went off alone, if he could fight, he’d follow her, and they’d be fast enough to get back, he wouldn’t let her do what she did. 

His lips were dry, and he tasted salt, it seemed his tears only stopped flowing because of the impending dehydration. As the adrenaline wore off, his injuries once again let themselves into the spotlight – rest was paramount. With the remnants of any strength he had left, humanity’s strongest soldier dragged himself to Hange’s suitcase and found her blanket. That familiar scent hit him like a drug; he wrapped himself in the soft linen before laying down on the floor with her shirt under his head. He was still in bad shape and this exhausted him, so for his own mental state he forced himself to think of what life could have been, as his mind steadily trailed away to nothing in particular.

Underneath the city of Marley, once the dark underbelly of a bustling metropolis, lay the subterranean City of the Underground. Within minutes, it was an explosion of chaos. People screamed, babies cried, the dying wailed as the survivors tried to make sense of the situation and aid others. Refugees either got in on time or perished outside.  
There were only so many rooms available for the injured as the Underground wasn’t quite well known for its booming economy and funding, so the medics had to navigate the slums in hope for a soul kind enough to let them in amidst the panic.

“Stay away! Leave! I have a gun!” spat out a voice from behind the sturdy doors.

“Sana, don’t bother, check the next ones in that alley,” one of the men with her instructed before disappearing into the crowd.

The girl looked at Hange with equal parts disgust and worry. She looked as bad as when she found her on the shore half an hour ago. She didn’t want to count another goner, so without hesitation, Sana pushed the trolley with the stretcher to the next house over.

“Kind residents, please permit us a room, I bring an injured woman in tow,” she shouted politely, juxtaposed with her banging on the door.

“Fuck out of here, bitch!”

She jolted her head to the right to see the old man she spoke to previously peeking out of his window and shaking his fist in anger. This was not the time. This was the apocalypse, who cared about deescalating one sided arguments like these.

The door in front of her creeped ajar. She peeked in, looking hopeful. A gaunt man looked at her with apprehension, glanced to the body on the stretcher, and back to the girl.

“I implore you, she’s still alive, I checked a minute ago.”

The man grimaced but unlocked the door chain. Finally, she thought, as she guided the trolley into the dimly lit, modest house. The dusty, burgundy couch clashed heavily with all other equally gaudy furniture in the room. Empty cups and plates littered the floor like land mines, as she tried to avoid crashing into them with the wheels. He took the hint and crouched down, before clumsily pushing them to the corner.  
With some coordination, they managed to lay Hange onto the couch. Sana flashed her light onto her workload for the very first time. She noted the uniform and its thickness, the remnants of what seemed to be a harness and her eyepatch.  
“You look so abnormal,” she muttered under her breath.  
Without wasting any more time, she equipped her gloves, apron, and scissors and prepared to get to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though I'm a seasoned Levihan shipper, until now I've only consumed fanmade content, this time I'm offering something in return, as this is my first work I invite you to nitpick it so I can deliver better works in the future, dedicate your hearts comrades


	2. Mission

Skin scorched, body contorted, Hange lay lifelessly on the seedy sofa as Sana sewed in her stitches. Hours passed, bottles of antiseptic were emptied and cold metal trays cluttered the living room. Used anaesthesia syringes littered the carpet on the side of the couch. The survivor’s sorry state was a reflection on the doctor, Sana thought, even if she didn’t give the unfortunate soul much of a chance. Her handiwork could not salvage the skin on her arms, torso and back; third degree burns covered the top half of her body and fried most of her hair. Her face looked better, possibly her hair shielded it from the flames and got fried instead – she wasn’t there, she didn’t know, but the banality of the situation made her raise eyebrows. The world was dead, and yet she still acknowledged that her face looked fine, that’s how deeply ingrained societal norms were in her. They will not be important from now on but she hasn’t yet accepted what happened today, a part of her reassured her that this was just an awful nightmare, and any minute now the morning sun would shine into her window.

“Fuck’s sake,” she whispered to herself. She crouched down above one of the trays laying on the floor to avoid blood dripping from the piece of dead skin she just had to peel off. If she was at the hospital, she would at least have had a trolley to store her bio hazards on.

“Would you kindly,” she questioned, while tilting her head to divert the man’s attention to the clutter. It sounded more like a command, but he obliged, he was in no position to argue, he hasn’t been up there, and he wasn’t sure what was happening, but he understood it was serious. Maybe a bomb took off? Have there been many casualties? He’d have to inspect later.

“Whatever was blown up must have been powerful,” he added as he worked to break the silence.

“Sir, while I haven’t seen it myself, as I was evacuated, they say sixty-meter titans tore through the city. It sounds impossible, but when I told you about it I was not diminishing the extent of the damage. I mean it, nearly everyone is dead.”

The man’s mouth stayed agape as he tried to comprehend such nonsense.

“I don’t understand how I can keep composed after seeing it with my own eyes. As soon as I take off my scrubs… then I’ll try to digest it. For now, I’m here to save lives,” she said to herself more than to anyone. It may have sounded arrogant, but god, did she need encouragement.

The skin graft had to borrow from Hange’s legs to cover the damage. She was very slim, hence had next to zero fat tissue or loose skin that could provide the material, so there was little Sana had to work with. The operation proved more and more difficult as it went on, and the incessant wails outside weren’t helping. Sana grew distressed. 

“The rest of my family are scheduled to come in here soon, we exchanged telegrams as soon as the news broke out,” the man mentioned tentatively.

“Of course, this is your home kind sir, don’t feel abashed – I swear to god, this cunt,” she trailed off under her breath as she failed to spread a chunk across her back, she was running out of spaces to cut from. She could get some from the tummy, but she had to be very careful where she’s cutting, she couldn’t be disturbed as she sunk in the knife. Steadily…

The doors swung wide open. Sana flinched.

“Ray, you’re okay! Take out the settee, we’ll all be staying here until we get some answers. Kids, get in, quickly now… and who’s this woman? And why’s there a dead body on the couch?!”

Sana’s veins pulsated at the booming voice of the plump, middle-aged woman who seemed to fetch an almost endless trail of relatives, ready to claim the space of the living room. Since the door was still open, the screams outside became clearer. Like mercury in a thermometer, her blood pressure rose with every passing minute.

_Two hours earlier_

Frail fingers gripped the splintered planks of wood above them as a man attempted to lift himself from the rubble. Spectacles covered in ash, hair dishevelled and dirty, he dusted himself off as he gauged his bearings. Once a spot filled with children’s laughter, young lovers’ discreet frolicking and families enjoying pastimes, the beach was tainted by the stench of death and demise. He wiped his glasses on the inside of his shirt and repositioned them on his nose to get a better look at the remains of the harbour.  
The person he was looking for was right there, which was the greatly preferred option, he won’t have to swim for her. She better still be alive, or his options were going to be halved.  
As soon as he was about to make his way to the shore, another female approached the body. He couldn’t see what she was doing, but the stretchers which followed signalled that they were medics. At least this meant the Commander was still alive, which was the main prerequisite for his endeavours.  
He stared incredulously as they lifted her up on the cart. This was not a part of his plan, he thought, as his eyebrow twitched in disbelief. A strong gust of wind knocked the air out of him, coughs causing blood to trail down his beard. Haste was of the utmost importance, he thought, as he landed onto the sand and watched as the cart disappeared behind the ashy mist.

Zeke Jaeger watched as Hange Zoe’s fate dragged her away from the seashore.

Ymir Fritz may have been a slave, but the authority over his life was as real as any master’s; at least the part where she decided when he will die. The past few days have proven to be a forecast of the end of his tenure, and he failed to convince Eren to carry out his Euthanasia plan. Everyone he knew either wanted him dead or would not pay attention to his preaching. The winter of his life grew colder, and the next best resolution had to be his legacy.  
Beggars wailed and fell at his feet, the unfortunate yelled at the heavens and the street smart looted storefronts. The Underground City pulsated chaos in every direction, and more wounded kept pouring in seemingly out of nowhere. Even with his hardening ability, when he hid in a cellar during the rumbling, he could not stop his body from getting cut by the building materials snapping underneath the titans’ weight. How he was going to find Hange he didn’t know, and he wished he was fast enough to trail right behind them when they left with her body, but he was weak, and he was only going to get weaker.

“Excuse me, I’m looking for a badly burned woman, she was taken on a stretcher,” he shouted over to a group of men with red crosses on their coats.

No answer.

“Excuse me!”

“You think we know who you’re talking about? We’re busy, we’re trying to save these people,” he heard back. Zeke needed the medics’ help, but he didn’t seem too popular with anyone in the state they were in. Understandable, as he wasn’t a walking, talking, fat stack of money, he didn’t need to be liked by everyone; but money was money, and everyone liked it.

“This is how much I’ll pay you if you help me find her,” he declared casually, motioning to a bag of gold coins he took out of his coat. The nonchalance was a fluke, after this payment he’d be as poor as a church mouse.  
They clamoured to his aid. Everyone had a price.  
Him and an officer he deemed to be the most knowledgeable out of his squadron inspected all the alleyways the troupe was permitted to go into. 

“She has dark eyes and hair, wearing a dark, skin tight uniform.”

“Yeah.”

“And she wears an eyepatch.”

“Oh yes!” The officer snapped in realisation. “Our teammate Sana was in charge of her. The boys were saying a person in suspicious clothing was rescued.”  
No, not suspicious, no one can be thinking that right now.

“…She’s an aviation student.”

“Ah, makes sense.”

“Hence the wings.”

“Good, good.”

Authoritative knocks left no household unchecked. Most opened the door from fear of punishment for disobeying – the men looked important – but some refused to and insisted there was no one there, some houses were just empty. The doctor that took Hange had no reason to lie if she was there, in fact it was against protocol, so he wasn’t worried they’ve already missed the right house.  
“One more time, one more of you wankers come in and talk to me about giving corpses a bed and breakfast at my house, I’ll skin you myself!” Spat out a voice from indoors.  
Odd way to put things.

“Has anyone already approached you about this? Was there a female doctor with an injured female on a stretcher?”

“Yes! So leave! The ones on the right took them in, don’t bother me! I have guns, and I’ll do you in for _trespassing!"_ He emphasised, cocking his rifle.  
Next house on the right it is. A feeble voice replied to the banging on the door.

“Who’s there?”

“We’re medics, was there a female doctor operating on a female patient there?”

After a brief pause, the door was ajar. Forty eyes stared back at the two visitors, but none with an eyepatch.

“They just left. The patient was in a critical state, so she said she’d try to get to the hospital in Dormeau.”  
Zeke’s eyebrow twitched for the thousandth time that day.

Swing left, swing right, swing left, stop. Swing right, swing left, swing right, halt.  
Time must have been an earthly concept, because Hange hadn’t felt it for – for at least while. She seemed to be in a rocking chair, but she didn’t understand when she sat there or what the space around her was, it was just out of focus. Some time ago, she recalled talking to Erwin, whatever happened with that? That didn’t matter, for some reason she didn’t have the mental capacity to question her circumstances. Hange just existed.  
The lights around her were dimming – were there even any lights there?  
She didn’t think about it further.  
She didn’t think.  
Until she felt a sharp pain.

“Hange, look, you’ve hurt yourself!” Erwin said, and all of a sudden she realised she was outside their base, and a Survey Corps blade cut into the skin of her legs. This was strange, because she thought she was on a rocking chair and since this was heaven she should know what was happening around her. The sky was cloudy.

“Levi will be upset and say you’re careless,” he added, as he passed her a bandage. That’s true, Levi would be upset, he didn’t like when she got hurt, she remembered that well. Speaking of which, where was he again? He couldn’t have been there for some reason, but she couldn’t remember why.  
She had to think really, really hard for this one.  
It came back to her eventually. Squeezing the bridge of her nose, she recalled her death, that Levi was alive and that this was an afterlife. How did she forget that so quickly? Moreover, why did Erwin not remember? They both must have been tired, they were acting like they were on forty-eight hours with no sleep, and it was way too taxing to remember more details.

“Let’s have a chat, Erwin, tell me about anything fun that happened here while I was alive.”

“Sure, there’s loads. I’ve no prior engagements. And after, we can go to sleep. You look so tired, Hange.”

For exactly ten seconds after waking up, Levi didn’t yet remember what had happened and relished in the tender embrace of Hange’s blanket. Did she pass out in his bed again? Quite bold of him to have been sleeping beside her while –  
His eyes opened.  
He didn’t move a muscle as he took in his surroundings and the memories of the Rumbling crashed into his psyche.  
His breaths were shallow, and it took everything in him to slide himself back up into a sitting position. Hands clammy from gripping the blanket, he wiped them on his trousers before the pressure became familiar; it reminded him of the last time he touched Hange. As long as he lived, he was determined to never forget the pace of her heartbeat against his palm.  
He was a puppet in a trance and the heavy duty he bore was the puppeteer. Gently, he folded the fabrics after use and placed them back in her suitcase. The zipper – it was still broken, and these treasures had to be protected, so he slid it in a corner and put his own suitcase on top, to prevent any of Hange’s belongings from falling out. Levi had to part with it for now, so like the exemplary soldier he moulded himself to be, he stood up robotically and headed out the door, back to the cabin.  
His arrival was greatly anticipated, as evidenced by the attention snapping back to him as soon as the door handle was pressed. His lifeless eyes and bags underneath spoke more than a thousand words, so nobody dared to bring up the Commander before he did.  
As purple dusk formed gaunt shadows inside the plane, Levi sat quietly, clasping the hand that felt Hange’s heart and pondered how, if she was still here, she would have led them out of their demise.

Zeke was fond of gambling, but not so much so as to risk death before reaching his goals, which is why he was apprehensive to exert himself. He needed money, and lots of it, because this plan was expensive. Nightfall creeped on him faster than he could get out of the range of entrances to the Underground. To achieve this wealth, transforming into his titan was mandatory.  
He couldn’t wait any longer, if he did, the lightning flash from his transformation would be too visible from far away and he did not have the energy to kill any onlookers. Zeke took one last cautionary glance around him before sinking his teeth into his hand.  
A flash tore through the sky.  
The bank building was located ahead, and like he expected, was in ruins. The ceiling seemed to be caved in and the vault was visible from above, bent into a distorted shape from titan footprints. At least one thing went according to plan that day, Zeke commented to himself, before smashing the metal chamber on the ground. The doors bent under the hardened fist’s pressure, spilling glistening gold and jewels over the rubble.  
The moon watched curiously as the looter gathered his bounty. He took as much as he could, if someone else were to find this soon he’d face another risk of hyperinflation and his new-found wealth would be meaningless, so he covered what he couldn’t fit in his bag with a wooden plank and left the site, leaving the site in his human form.

Dormeau bustled with life on an average day; on the day of the apocalypse, it was infested with decease. The stench of burnt flesh prickled the nostrils, as the imposter squeezed through the hospital doors. People and corpses mixed in a soup of shouting, sweat and tears. He covered his mouth to avoid nausea as he inconspicuously held his sack close to his chest. Finding Hange would be impossible in this state, but that’s why he had the money to talk for him, it would be his passport to checking off another thing on the list.  
Like a crook, he offered coins to doctors for information on the whereabouts of a red-haired female medic and a half alive brunette, but the details seemed to not match after a while. 

“Go to hall Z, room 59. Probably there, but I don’t know…” declared a young, inexperienced looking man as he slid his payment in his inside pocket.

“I was in hall Z ten minutes ago. I’ve already checked, where is she actually?” Zeke replied impatiently. Before he could finish his sentence, from the corner of his eye, he saw a group of doctors staring at him and gossiping. Word must have gotten around that he was giving money to whomever gave him directions, paying before leaving, and not coming back later to demand his money back if the information was false.

“My boss is very strict, sir, I can’t help you further, I have patients right now,” he said nonchalantly, trying to get Zeke off his back now that he was paid. Fortunately, the Beast Titan’s patience ran out quicker than the scammer could leave.

“If you look for her and find her with me, I will pay you a month’s wage for your efforts,” Zeke replied confidently. It’s not like this money was hard earned, he didn’t feel grief parting with it – on the contrary – he even felt a little high playing the part of a rich, benevolent lord.

They arrived at the rightmost wing of the building, and anxiety has been building up for hours. If he finds her dead, all this was for naught and he might as well have accepted defeat. They checked every window on every door, failing to recognise their target, until Zeke spotted a ginger updo bobbing left to right, from an IV drip to a body on a hospital bed. His heart pounded at the stress.

“Sana, this gracious gentleman is looking for the woman you brought,” the man announced excitedly on his arrival. This was it, the person he was looking for was right there.

_“My dear sister!”_ he exclaimed theatrically, falling to his knees, just as he rehearsed. In a dramatic manner, he covered his face with his hand from the two doctors to shield the fact he couldn’t cry on command. There, he beheld the miserable wretch up close for the first time. The last time he saw her, she was escaping with his nemesis, and fire burned in her eyes as she stared back. She was lively, quick witted and blessed with good health, but now her body was scorched, hair fried and skin dull, only some parts of her face weren’t ruined by the fire. He almost, almost felt bad for Levi, but still not quite. With a gasp, he made as if he stumbled from the shock and gripped the coat hanger for support. Perhaps it was overkill. 

“This gentleman is so noble, so generous!” gushed the young doctor in hopes that he will get his due payment. Zeke picked up on this and threw a few coins at him without looking, which he happily crawled underneath Hange’s bed to pick up. Sana watched with a grimace she forgot to hide, this must have been the aristocrat throwing money at whomever gave him the time of day.

“Please let me take her, I own a hospital not far away and can provide better care!”

Scepticism was her ally when dealing with strange men, so she reacted with iron resolve. Nobody had that much money, he was probably some freak and the coins were likely fake.  
“My greatest apologies, kind sir, but without documentation I cannot authorise it,”  
He opened his backpack to reveal his wealth, at the sight of which the younger doctor nearly had a heart attack.  
Sana doubled down on her theory, nobody dressed so poorly would carry this much money, and definitely not without guards, hence the coins had to be counterfeits.

“How much do you need, doctor? I will double it. Let me take my sister,” he offered, alarmed at how she didn’t react positively to his only bargaining tool.  
A piece of her was moved by the man’s begging, but her common sense told her to not trust him. She didn’t just spend seven hours stitching her skin for her to be taken by some random man, not on her watch.  
That meant Zeke was out of options. He couldn’t fight, there were too many people about and his body was weakening, so he gave it his last shot. Staring her in the eyes, he emptied at least a kilogram of treasure, slowly reached for a lab coat from the hanger… and bolted with Hange’s hospital bed.  
He didn’t have time to put the garment on as the wheels swivelled between patients, trying not to hit them. He heard Sana’s voice calling behind him, he didn’t look back, instead he lifted Hange from the bed and rushed to the corridor. She wasn’t heavy, but she was frail, and the turbulence caused by tripping on visitors and injured alike could injure her further. Since he was forced to leave the bed behind, her IV drip ripped out of her wrist, fresh blood trickling on his trousers.  
He never closed his bag.  
The metallic clinking which trailed behind him alerted onlookers and they threw themselves on the loot. His coins were falling out as he ran, but he needed more to continue with his plan, so he clumsily swung the bag on top of Hange to avoid more spilling out, still running from any possible staff. This was not meant to be that hard, he thought to himself as he headed out the door for dear life, clinging to Hange, his bag and panting like an old man.  
He ran, and ran, as fast he could until he was out of breath and collapsed by a broken lamp post, away from any living soul. The waxing moon shone brightly at Zeke and the woman sprawled across him.

“Please tell me you won’t disappoint me,” he uttered, as he gained his composure back. He got up with a sigh, picked her up and walked until he was sure he couldn’t be seen, before transforming into the Beast Titan and fading into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Those Hange alive theories on Twitter are getting wilder. Cheers to all the Levihans out there who are not losing hope, I will not lose hope either, until we can get the explanation of Eren's memory shard with Hanchan.  
> If anyone gets the Easter Egg in this chapter, I will name a character after you, if you choose to provide me with a name, if not, I will at least gush at your 200IQ big brain. Hint for the Easter Egg: I live in the UK, hence write my dates day first, month second.


	3. Encore

Steady vibrations rattled through the flying boat as its wheels descended from the underbelly. The clanking of metal mixed in a cacophony with Onyankopon’s voice as it crackled through the speakers, advising preparation for landing.

“We may experience minor turbulence, please hold the bars for assistance.”

Those wings fluttered in the wind like underwear on a clothing line, Levi thought to himself.  
He watched as the horizon line seemed to flatten with every minute. If she was still there, she’d see it too, and her theories about the world being spherical would hence be proven. She’d watch mesmerised at this life changing discovery, the dawn’s gleam reflecting in her sparkling, caramel eyes, and then she’d tell him to look, but he’d already be looking at her.  
To the untrained eye, he seemed as if he’s looking nowhere in particular, but his mind was busy conjuring her image.  
A bang against the ground fizzled her picture out of his daydream, snapping him to reality. Those must have been the wheels hitting the landing strip, which meant the machine landed successfully. Connie exhaled in relief.  
The Marleyan engineers quickly left the flying boat to prepare for refuelling, as the Survey Corps went down the steps, setting foot on uncharted land. The people seemed to have already been evacuated, as there was nobody in sight. This uncanny silence of what only yesterday was a major city creeped around them, foreboding death. They walked a few meters away from the workers to commence some much-needed discussion.

“As Eren will not listen to negotiations, our options are narrowed,” Armin stated the obvious, as if looking for a way to soften the blow. “I’m still trying to come up with something other than the last resort… of my titan going nuclear,” he trailed off, his voice breaking noticeably. Mikasa leaned her back against a wall, pinching her nose bridge. “Captain, you said Hange speculated killing Zeke would stop The Rumbling. I thought about this and it may be true. If it isn’t, it can’t be our only option, and I have a bad feeling about it because Zeke was absent in paths.”

They all recalled the out of body experience of Eren transporting them into his realm. Levi shuddered.

“The bastard’s not there, and it freaks me out. It’s just kid Eren with some other kid, Ymir apparently?” Levi asked, gesticulating to Armin for a response, receiving a firm nod in return. “What if Zeke has nothing to do with it anymore? What if he’s dead somewhere?” Levi concluded, folding his arms.

“It’s not like we can k- do anything to Ymir…” Armin trailed off, eyes darting around to check for any angry deities listening in. “I assume that’s Ymir, because nobody else would be allowed there with him. She’s a goddess, she doesn’t have a body and hence cannot be removed.” 

Reiner spoke for the first time in a while.

“No matter how we put it, we keep running circles around the idea of blowing up Eren,” He noted in a harsh baritone. “I’ve committed grave sins too, I know. But I think we’re avoiding this possibility because deep down we know we can’t physically take him down. Not Levi, not Mikasa, not your titan.” Mikasa’s eyes narrowed at the remark.

“The colossal’s explosion would definitely take him down. We’re just exploring other options,” she retorted.

“We’ve already exhausted all other options, I don’t even know what the point of talking about this is anymore,” he gestured to the group, as if to reassure himself the others shared his opinion.

“That’s right,” Armin interjected, his face emotionless. “Eren said he gave us freedom, but he’s deciding for us here. I didn’t come up with anything on the plane, we can only try to kill him.”

Mikasa didn’t move from her spot to interfere.

“I told them to load up maximum fuel, we’ll go head to head with Eren by meeting him perpendicular to where he will be currently. I’ll blow up the whole thing. It will take us the whole day to fly there, we’ll battle at night.”

There was nothing else left to say.

Levi was by no means healed, but he wouldn’t fall and die from stretching his legs, so he went on a short walk around the alleyways. Keeping a mental note of when he’d have to be back, he took in the foreign sights of the city.  
When he was younger, he never dreamed of witnessing architecture not akin to the one at Paradis. As Survey Corps members, him and his comrades often talked about possible civilisations outside of the walls, but having seen no other cultures, they didn’t know what kind of people to expect.  
The buildings around him were made of a clay like substance, mostly in the colour of sand, juxtaposed with the vivid paintings decorating them. Powders, inks and fragrant oils stood proudly on merchant stands, showcasing the ghost town’s wealth. Levi’s never found pigments this bright or scents this elaborate. Vases of jewellery lay smashed on the floor, while thick rugs formed makeshift ceilings over the market structures, casting shadows, protecting him from the parching heat. Hange would probably get too warm and sweaty, he’d have to take her jacket, he thought. He’d make sure her hair’s properly tied up as well, it would help keep her cool.  
A velvety case lay open on the ground, empty apart from a single, bright red crystal, resting comfortably inside. They didn’t have anything like this at home, she’d probably want to see this.

“Hange, do you want-“

Levi froze midway through the sentence.

He forgot.

Due to the absence of any wind, all he could hear was his slow, shaky exhale. He didn’t move, like he was caught red handed doing something he’s not supposed to. He only forgot about her death for a few seconds, and yet he already managed to talk to her as if nothing ever happened. He deliberately swallowed what felt like a pit rapidly growing in his throat, as familiar melancholy let itself in again, her last moments replaying in his head like a coloured motion picture. He didn’t want to stop thinking about her, stop imagining these frivolous scenarios, there was no point. He did not expect to live long no matter what the outcome of their mission would be. If he would die fighting Eren, there’s a chance he’d see Hange and the others. If he’d survive, he’d have nothing else to look forward to. He’s already lived a full life, he just wanted peace, and once humanity no longer needed him, he’d let himself go without fanfare.

His nail dug into his palm as his finger slipped off the crystal. He didn’t realise how white his knuckles were from clutching the stone, he was like a child gripping the edge of its seat as it withstands a doctor administering a vaccine, bearing the pain by exerting force. Except the pain of this injection was constant, it wouldn’t go away no matter how long Levi clasped the rock in his hand. His nose stung, and his vision became blurry. The sun’s rays reflected from the perfectly polished, crimson gem and due to the tears pooling up in Levi’s eyes, they became a blurred soup of redness. Red everywhere, a hue he knew too well.  
He crouched on the dusty floor, breathing heavy, raspy breaths as his emotions flooded him again. He felt so small and useless, burying his face in his sleeve. The crying was painful; because the sun burned him he was dehydrated, and if he didn’t have a duty to everyone he knew before him he might have just stayed there and let himself collapse.  
But Hange didn’t burn alive for him to do that.  
The pathetic soldier pocketed the jewel and stood up, before heading back to the others.

_Five hours earlier_

The night was cool and cloudless, and Zeke’s plan was underway.  
Thanks to his titan he could cover great distances in a short amount of time, and he had a lot of walking on his agenda. Food, a change of clothes and a small briefcase from his old home; More money from the bank; A pen and paper while he was there.  
He left the items from his house for last. If he had time, he’d stay for longer, but he already made peace with his circumstances, so pondering over lost innocence would only delay his fate.

He was out in a field, and in front of him was a four-meter-deep pit, with a wooden ladder to the bottom. Hange’s head was in his lap as he measured her temperature. She developed a fever over the past few hours, and he couldn’t get her back to hospital, that would defeat the purpose of bringing her out here – if anything, it was a sign for him to hurry.

Hange felt locked in a haze, and had long forgotten about why she was there, or what was happening around her.  
It was dark, and she seemed to be laying down. She felt exhausted, her limbs didn’t cooperate, and she waited for sleep. She thought she heard Moblit’s and Erwin’s voices in the background, but didn’t pay much attention, there was no plot, these things were just happening. To help herself drift away, she remembered pleasant, trivial things like wine, the sea, and evenings with Levi.  
Levi.

Zeke flicked the syringe as he kept a close eye on Hange’s condition. She lay loosely strapped to a sleeping bag on the edge of the pit. 

Hange felt like she was dying, and she didn’t remember anything about the afterlife anymore. She could vaguely make out Levi’s silhouette by the side of her bed.

Without hesitation, Zeke, injected the full vial of titan serum into her neck, before letting her slide into the pit.

“Hange, you can go to sleep now, it’s so late,” She heard Levi say.  
And then nothing existed.

Zeke stood away cautiously as the yellow light simmered down and the dust settled. In the place of the once revered Survey Corps commander, stood an uncanny, mindless titan. It was around six, seven meters tall, short enough to not leave the hole it was bound in. It was slender, with a neck too long to support its head without looking strained, dark hair and an absent stare.  
He regarded it with weariness in case it were to do something unexpected, but it didn’t seem to act out of the ordinary. Beyond stretching its arm in his direction, the titan stared blankly.

“You’ll be glad I did it in the end,” he retorted, as if challenging the titan’s unfaltering gaze.  
Now, where was he.  
With a quick slash on his finger, he transformed into the beast, once again ripping the heavens with lightning strikes. How many times in one night was it already? He could tell he was smaller this time around, not fully formed due to his weakening body. He looked down at his hairless wrists, translucent, pink skin pulled so taut over them that the workings of his arteries were visible in plain sight. He grimaced at his grotesque form, looked back to see if the titan was still where he wanted it, and headed back in the direction of Marley’s urban area.

By the time he returned to the Underground City, authorities seemed to try enforcing order over the refugees. He kept his head down and never let go of his refilled satchel. He didn’t frequent places like these and so had no experience in bargaining of this nature, but the money should talk for him.  
Red, steel gates stood open, leading to a kitschy, pink manor. Apprehensively, he approached the sturdy entryway. Two bodyguards rested against the door, eyeing him, looking agitated.

“What are you here for?”

“I wish to speak to your madam. I bring riches from far away, and my men are nearby, patrolling the area,” Zeke bluffed, not losing eye contact. If he were to play the part of a wealthy lord, he had to seem like he brought an entourage.

Satisfied by his confidence, the men let him through.  
The inside was poorly lit, decorated in flamboyant tapestries and smelling strongly of foreign incense. He heard nervous conversations from the rooms ahead but didn’t see any of the ladies to which the voices belonged to. At the bottom of the hallway, a busy, on edge woman studied some documents.

“Are you the Madam of this house?” Asked Zeke, feigning confidence. He watched as she motioned to the shiny plaque at the end of her desk.

_Madam Halley_

“I won’t beat around the bush then. I have all this money, and my men are outside,” He announced, sitting in the plush chair opposite hers, spilling out the contents of his bag. Her eyes widened, and she covered her mouth. She’s never seen this much gold in her life, and if this was a real customer, she had to be careful.

“What are you planning to ask us to do? I will need my clerk to verify these are real, obviously…”

“I want them all to get pregnant and give birth.”

The Madam blinked a few times in disbelief, as if to take time to comprehend his request. 

“With this much money, both the women who agree and yourself will live comfortably for the rest of your lives. I want heirs, but my time is running out.”

The mistress of the house led him into the lounge, where dozens of girls and women gossiped about the news from above ground. Draped in silky, glittery or cashmere finery, as soon as they saw Halley and the man, they stood up, ready for orders.  
“Now listen up everyone. This is a very, very affluent patron, and he’s looking as many of you as he can get, but he has an… atypical request.”  
The employees visibly froze at the last part. In this line of work, that could mean all sorts of unseemly perversions.

“How much would you ask for in exchange for bearing a customer’s child and providing them love and care?” 

Some women raised eyebrows, some looked curious. Cautious whispers erupted at the back.

“I think I’d want ten… twelve gold coins,” challenged a girl at the front of the crowd. “I could go to school with that money or continue here and have savings for old age. It would have to be a life changing sum like that,” she concluded. A few ladies nodded at her proposal, others looked deep in thought.

“I’ll double it.”

Her mouth hung open, before turning into a seductive grin. Many others were equally as excited. The Madam interjected.

“What we mean is, if the pregnancy is mysteriously halted, or the child dies in suspicious circumstances, or they’re not loved and cared for, his men will come back. It may not be that month, that year, or within the next few years, but you can expect them. I will give him your information if you agree to do this.”

Zeke kept a poker face as she explained his terms of the contract. He didn’t have any men to come back for them, but he would take that secret to the grave.

“I’ll give you all an hour to make up your minds. Prepare him a bath and the VIP suite. Mister, are you craving any food? We can supply anything that tickles your fancy,” said Halley, locking her arm in his, switching to customer service mode. Zeke should have lived like this earlier, he thought. At least he’d go out with a bang.

“I would fancy some eggs.”

“Get this man every type of egg!”

In the end, twelve out of twenty-five women agreed to try to get pregnant for the payment of twenty-four gold coins each. To the surprise of the Madam, none of the jewels or precious metals he paid with were counterfeit – he of course knew they weren’t, because he stole them directly from a bank vault. This incredulity shifted into the best service he ever got in his short life, an all-inclusive package of virtually anything he desired. Poached eggs, boiled eggs, eggnog; an eighty-year-old crate of wine; a naked game of baseball in the lobby.  
He was there for over twelve hours, but no matter how attractive the ladies with him were, there was no way he could go twelve times. Desperate times called for desperate measures, so by the third hour he ordered one of the courtesans to fetch an infants’ syrup syringe from the pharmacy. They seemed to forget that outside of their pastime there was an apocalypse outside, so she quickly came back both empty handed and looking like she just returned from war.  
They had to make do with metal straws from the kitchen. Zeke finished half into his female companion, half into a group of porcelain dishes, to the best of his ability. Halley watched, completely weirded out from the sofa, as they used the kitchenware in creative ways for makeshift in vitro insemination of the other prostitutes. She thought she’d seen it all. She inspected them with an elbow on the armrest, peeking at the debauchery from in between her fingers. Anything for that pay check.

Drunk, spent and tired, Zeke headed back to the field in the late afternoon. His beast titan form barely resembled its usual self anymore, but it did the job – moving across Marley in a quick, efficient way. He changed back into a human, before sitting a safe distance away from the titan he was keeping. Its stare was equally as blank as before, and it reached out its arm in his direction in the same manner.

“You’re so eager, executioner,” Zeke chuckled, looking back into its eyes. His time has come.  
He reached for pen and paper from the group of things he brought earlier and started writing. It was a long letter, but he had no doubts its recipient would read all of it. His handwriting was far from neat, he crossed out words and rephrased sentences, but he never seemed to stop for more than a few seconds.  
Once he finished writing his signature and the end of the letter, he felt paralysed.  
He was dying anyway, and he thought this through thoroughly. What he did in the last forty-eight hours was his last effort to further mankind’s survival, so he should be ready to die, and yet his body protested. Maybe it was bravado convincing him he can redeem his sins, or maybe he wished to feel like his death had meaning – either way, it prompted him to reach for the suitcase again and pull out the second syringe, labelled morphine. Taking a deep breath, he shot up three doses worth of the drug up his wrist.  
Due to his previous intoxication, the substance started working rather quickly. This euphoria relaxed him, put him into a dreamlike state. He looked up at the titan, as he shakily got up.

“I did well,” he reassured himself, walking towards the monster. 

He thought of his parents, his grandparents, of Xavier, of his comrades, his friends and his home. He vaguely felt the titan lift him off the ground, and he kept his loved ones in his mind, as he prepared for the end.

And then everything stopped.

The full moon once again sagely judged the sinners of the earth. It was the only thing that knew of what happened at the plains, and it watched the figure in the pit with great interest. Their fingers twitched, and their breathing sped up, said figure must have been waking.

At last, Hange’s eyes shot open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to user fanmoose12 for sharing this story on their tumblr!  
> Thank you to @yoonah______ for sharing it on Twitter!  
> Thank you to @Dani_Chan24 and @ACoffee1988 from Twitter for your theories! I don't have a Twitter account but I snoop on the levihan and hange tags. I've had suspicions ever since I saw the panel of Hange in a monkey costume in Attack Junior High. Your tweets definitely revived these suspicions.
> 
> To everyone else - you thought this was just gonna be an angsty levihan story, yet you got swerved on by Zeke in a brothel. I could have made that scene way more descriptive.


	4. Lightning

Pupils darted around like bullets. 

Hange’s breaths were quick and shallow, and she didn’t dare to move whilst she registered that she was, in fact, once again conscious. Where, she didn’t know, but the days she spent with Erwin, Moblit and the others looked like obvious figments of her imagination, now that she was awake to compare. The moon. It was bright and the only thing she saw above her, so she must have been laying outside. She turned to her side and saw nothing, except the vague form of a bag, or maybe cloth. She turned to the other side – a shiny, metal ladder glistened in the moonlight. She followed the gleam to the top, it must have been a way out, perhaps someone had left it there for her. That would mean someone knows what happened, someone knows she’s alive and they may send help. Her burns must have been bad, but she couldn’t see or feel them yet, so she dismissed it as shock and cautiously got up.  
Only then did she notice she wasn’t dressed – she didn’t want to question why, but it alarmed her even more. If someone found her, why not give her new clothes, presuming her old ones were burned? And then she remembered – flashbacks of her pain, the ones closest to her bidding farewell, amongst them the person with a special place in her heart.

Where was he.

She grabbed what seemed to be, after all, a bag and climbed up the sturdy ladder. Anything could have been up there, a cell, a haven, a-  
There was nothing there.  
Remains of a burned field stretched in every direction, and there was no soul in sight. She couldn’t have revived herself alone because she knew about her final moments, she remembered her death. Someone must have helped her.  
Hange nearly missed the shiny red envelope, placed strategically on a large stone by the edge of the pit. There was no address at the back, but it didn’t take humanity’s brightest soldier to figure out its contents could provide some answers. She sat on the burnt grass and unveiled a letter.

_To the 14th Commander of the Survey Corps_

_Dear Hange,  
The winter of my life is growing colder. If you’re reading this, then I am already dead and you have inherited the last thing I could give to humanity.  
You must be wondering how I got to you. During your journey to the port, nobody had checked underneath the rear deck. I was afraid one of you would, but I took the chance and it paid off; my misguided brother left me with no choice. He is not open to my Euthanasia plan and is set on genocide, a solution neither you nor I accept. I heard your conversation with Yelena upstairs, you never disputed the fact that my plan was the better option._

_From what I understand, he doesn’t want to sacrifice Historia who would keep bearing children to preserve the royal bloodline. If I cannot have my way, I am forced to have yours. I engaged in intercourse with a dozen prostitutes from the Underground City and paid them off with real gold, their details are attached at the back of the notebook, I said my men will keep watching them. You of course, know this is all a fluke, I have no men; the children they bear will be a last resort you can use in your negotiations with Eren. If even three out of the twelve women get pregnant, that still gives us enough time to have a founding titan with a royal bloodline in approximately forty, fifty years. It’s barbaric, but we’ve killed on a larger scale._

_I know you want to continue negotiations with him. It’s pointless. Eldia should die out in peace. But you’ve already died on that hill, so there is no use in convincing you, the least I can give you to stop the whole world from dying is some leverage. Not to mention, if you decide to attack, you have one more titan on your side, as well as yourself back in the game. You were a very good opponent, you and Levi both._

_Speaking of which, I wonder how he will react upon seeing you as the beast titan, I hope there is an afterlife, so I could witness that epic showdown myself. From what I can tell he is quite fond of you, you may become quite repulsive to him if your titan resembles mine._

_There is a map and compass in the bag, as well as a change of clothes for you, I suspect you might be in an indecent state after the transformation. They’re mine so they’ll be ill fitting, once again do mention it to Levi, I wish to taunt him even from the depths of hell. I could of course be completely wrong, and your feelings could be platonic, but frankly I don’t care, because I’m insanely drunk and about to go up to you to perish. Food and water should be with the clothes._

_I don’t know what else to write. If I stop writing, my time will be up. My family and friends are all gone now, so nothing personal keeps me here. I want to have fulfilled my duty, so please do not let my sacrifice go to waste._

_I hope all of you make the correct decision, and this is directed at Eren as well._

_I send my regards from hell._

_\- Zeke Jaeger  
_  
Hange finished the letter, staring at the messy, smudged signature at the bottom. She pinched her nosebridge, eyes wide open, as she registered what she just read. Zeke rescued her on the brink of death, after her entire squad failed to notice him under the deck. He attempted to leave descendants with royal blood for the Alliance to use as leverage. Then, he allowed himself to be eaten by her, so she must have inherited the power of the beast. She didn’t feel any different to normal-  
She felt fine.  
Which meant her burns were gone. She squinted her eyes to get a better look at her body in the dark and reached to fix her glasses.  
They weren’t there.  
And yet, she read that letter perfectly. Another shock, because she wasn’t able to read a piece of paper, never mind in the dark, since she was a girl, many years ago, and yet her eyesight seemed sharp.  
Another realisation.  
She could see with both eyes.  
Tears welled up at the emotional overload, her heart pounded at the constant shocks every few seconds. Perhaps this was the real afterlife, and the universe was planning a sick joke. She pinched herself in various places and felt all of it, so she might have been safe in that regard, albeit it wasn’t a very scientific experiment. 

Zeke’s duffel bag was filled to the brim. Bottles of water, bread, jars of food and dried meat. She wasn’t sure where he got it rom and it was strange to be thankful to her mortal enemy, but she took advantage of the water, bread and jam immediately. To the side, was a map of the area and a compass, as well as a few others – she would study them after eating. Further down, thick socks, trousers and a top, all too big for her. He could have taken some fitting shoes from that brothel, she thought, but she was in no place to complain. Lastly, a large bag of gold coins.

It could have been any day by then – who knew how long she was asleep? For all she knew, her comrades could have been dead a long time ago. The map showed her she was on the outskirts of a Marleyan city, and using the compass she pinpointed her rough location. North west, she concluded, turning around. 

Eren was the ultimate test subject, he could be reused many times over and she could watch him from afar, calculating her next hypotheses under empiric method. She was not used to being the subject herself. The lump in her throat was uncomfortable; all this information, in normal circumstances, would take days, weeks to process. Hange has already ran out of time, and she was behind schedule, so like clockwork, she put on Zeke’s garments, ditching the ill-fitting shoes. The plains were just another enemy she ordered herself to defeat. The beast could surely travel long distances, and Zeke wouldn’t have left her too far from Eren if he wanted her to actually be of use.  
She edged her thumb closer to her mouth, focusing on the distance ahead.

Three.

What kind of feeling would it be?

Two.

Would it hurt?

One.

She held her breath,

“Son of a bitch!” She recoiled, wincing from the stinging pain. A set of white teeth marks formed on the area of assault. A gust of wind filled her nostrils with ash and debris, she coughed uncontrollably. This wasn’t going well.  
Perhaps she would try again, harder this time.

Just like biting your own tongue off is nearly impossible, her jaw wouldn’t allow her to sink much deeper. White teeth marks covered both hands, some giving way to droplets of blood. She got cut all the time, and yet the pain was nothing like now where it was self-inflicted. If she was a shifter, the marks would heal, but she should have already transformed. This wasn’t like the time during Eren’s training when he was stuck in the pit and couldn’t get out, he didn’t have a clear vision in mind. She did, she had to traverse the fields and get back to the Alliance.

The metallic taste made her feel dizzy.

Old Marleyan scripture spoke of a devil who agreed to give Ymir powers to rule the world, and yet she was a slave to her master. The paintings of the devil’s domain looked quite like the sky above Hange – faintly red, with the ground burnt by the fire. She looked up, thinking of the plane she allowed Levi to take off in.  
If she had power that was so strong only a devil could bestow it, why couldn’t she go?

Why couldn’t she go to Levi?

“I just want to leave!” She screamed, staring up, one person’s face flashing in her mind. 

And then lightning struck.

Hange’s breath hitched in her throat as the brightness blinded her. She squinted her eyes open, and she wasn’t on the ground anymore, she was higher up, with no explanation how she got there so quickly. And then she tried to move.

Dust settled around the newly born creature. The flash of lightning was over, and yet the brightness didn’t die out. There stood a titan in the shape of a beast, nine meters tall. Its head was somewhere between a snake and an eagle, with alert yet calculated brown eyes.  
Its breast was covered in scales, but the lower half of its body transitioned into sleek, dark fur. It stood on four feline paws, with sharp claws buried inside each one. And then, undoubtedly the most striking feature.  
Hange tried to move her shoulders to get a better look at what was at her sides, and why it was glowing.  
Two wings on fire extended on either side of the beast. One white, one black, burning steadily, and yet she felt no unpleasant heat.  
To her great surprise, her consciousness remained sharp. No concentration training was needed, which was a great advantage, she thought, as she marvelled at her new form. All these years studying titans, and yet she never would have thought the serum can create such an amazing yet grotesque creature. The different parts of its body were oddly fitting, even though they seemed to belong to completely different animals. 

Hange practiced control of her titan. Her eyesight seemed sharper every minute, even though the night sky was covered in ash, she could see far and wide. When she wanted to move her arms and legs – or rather, paws – she had to imagine herself doing so, and it was difficult to coordinate at first, but it had to be something she could learn. There was no other option. The head and body movement seemed simple, but the wings, they were a whole new battle.

Hange wasn’t a bird. She couldn’t fly.

This reminded her of a summer evening many years ago.

Merchants locked the doors to their shops, children waved each other goodbye and men and girls came and went like moths to bars, clubs and ballrooms, marking the dawn of another fruitful night.

But a particular carriage headed in the opposite direction.

“Erwin was right to put faith in us. I feel like we’ve done a great job, right?”

Hange was resting her elbow on the window sill, turning to look at the man opposite her with a proud grin.

“Maybe they’ll let us pick up their scraps,” Levi scowled in disgust, looking out at the mansion where a charity ball just took place, an event for higher ups to beg aristocrats for sponsorships, a pleasantry usually left for Erwin, but he had other business that day, so they went in his stead. Taxes alone won’t fund the Survey Corps, maybe old rich men will.

“Please sir, I want some more!” Hange mocked herself, pretending to hold out an empty plate and looking up pleadingly like a child at an orphanage at its harsh nanny. Levi pretended not to be amused by straightening out his impending smile, but Hange knew better.

“I’m more of a socialist these days. All these people were in need of a hefty tax. I’d say, fifty percent on all income above three thousand coins a year,” she announced, leaning back on the velvet, cushioned seats.

“Some would call you radical,” he replied, seemingly not too interested, but those closest to him would know he looked at ease.

Neither of them noticed their carriage already started moving a while ago.

Clothing was low on Hange’s list of priorities, especially this kind. To not look out of place, she got a blue velvet gown for the occasion. The fashion seemed to consist of comically large amounts of fabric covering the behind, reminding Hange of the silhouette of a duck, draping in unexpected places and matching hats, always as excessive as possible. She still looked underdressed.

Levi wore a waistcoat and a top hat.

To him she looked strange, like there was something uncanny about her dressed in delicate fabrics, so he regarded her with the curiosity of a child watching a card trick.

He decided not to dwell on his interest.

Hange watched the sun set on the edge of Wall Sina. A flock of pigeons flew south-westwards, disappearing behind the barrier.

“It’s so easy for them to leave. Sometimes I think, why haven’t we found out more yet? It’s taking too long, like progress has been stagnant. I want to leave, just like them, and keep going until we find out if it really is the edge of the world there,” she shared, making the mood more sombre.

“You’re not a bird. You can’t fly,” he replied, looking straight at her. If she was someone else, she’d wonder if he didn’t understand what she said, but she was Hange. He meant that she can’t solve all of humanity’s problems, she’s not a god and she should stop trying to take the whole weight of the world on her shoulders. He didn’t have to say it out loud.

She gave him an appreciative half smile, before leaning back once again and closing her eyes to get some rest after their long day. He nodded, and did the same, as the carriage left the city and drove out into the night.

Hange reminisced fondly as she worked the mechanics of the wings. She may not have been a bird.

But she was a descendant of the devil, and that was close enough to a god to allow herself to make the fate of the world her responsibility.

With a roar, the beast took off into the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a long time coming. But we here now!  
> Feel free to find The Great Gatsby quote within the text, for fun.  
> Feel free to find the reference to an old English novel.
> 
> And thank you for your informative feedback.


	5. Daybreak

The creature claimed the sky as if it were her birthright, as Hange glided through the night with the ease and precision of a machine. Her supplies, map and everything else Zeke provided her with were strapped to her like a saddle, with belt straps strangely adjustable enough to fit her titan’s large frame. Perhaps he strapped it to his beast himself, she thought, whilst patrolling the ground beneath her like a hawk. Her burning wings were dimmed; she didn’t particularly know how she did it, it was instinctual, and it seemed to save energy.

As expected, water was on the horizon. Just as the map instructed, she flew across a rocky shore, with the open sea glistening ahead. 

This reassurance let her slip into a moment of ease. If she calculated the speed at which she was travelling correctly, she wouldn’t be above land until a few hours have passed. She better have enough energy to fly the entire time, or she would ruin her second chance at life, she thought.

Now that her anxiety has somewhat waned, subtle flashes of glee and pride took over.  
It was said that one must fit their titan’s characteristics to have an easier time controlling it. Eren was filled with too much youthful exuberance at the beginning, but Armin mastered it quickly. Did that mean she was a good match to inherit the beast? Zeke was chosen out of many for the role, he seemed calculating and came up with plans quickly, perhaps she was up to par.

She was above water now, and she held her breath as her heartbeat quickened. This was the point of no return, she would have to keep going like this for hours, or she would fall, drown and perish in the sea. The air was clearer here, as there would be no reason for the colossals to march through the ocean, unless it was on their trajectory. The sky was clear, and the waves stable. She noticed the subtle shape of the horizon. The scientist speculated that sailors were right, and the world did indeed have a slight curve to it, it wasn’t an illusion, because she could see it more clearly than when aboard a ship. She recalled her Marleyan books on theories on how far the curve stretched, and how the ocean didn’t just fall to the sides, like in a bowl, but bulged in the middle, as if it were the outline of a sphere. To be so far up, and see it with her own eyes, she felt thankful, and she lost track of time on how long she’s been gliding for. Maybe that was for the better.

At Marley’s shore, it felt like calm before the storm.

It has been around sixteen hours since the rumbling started, and according to Armin’s calculations, the titans should have been here two hours ago. Marleyan soldiers supervised the evacuation of refugees to underground bunkers for the elite, and to already-hit areas for the poor. It was speculated that titans may not trample there again.  
The Survey Corps, exhausted, were losing their patience.

“We gave him enough time. Armin wore his heart on his sleeve, neither begging nor bargaining is working. He won’t unharden, never mind communicate back,” sighed Pieck.

They haven’t seen the rumbling since they last passed it the previous night. Eren’s gigantic titan form hasn’t changed since then. It anchored itself into the ground with its centipede-like claws, hardened its body seemingly everywhere, and hasn’t made any moves for hours. No attacks, no cunning games, just radio silence. Armin and Mikasa laid against stacks of hay, staring at Eren’s unmoving features. For two hours, nothing of note has happened, and the young commander’s throat ached from pleading. Jean and the rest went to fetch food and water from the nearby rations.

“He forced us into this waiting game. I think my theory from before was correct. He deliberately is taking the long route to avoid us, and to complete the rumbling without us knowing. Once we find out from which side the titans will be coming, he will have already burned down whole countries,” said Armin, defeated.

Mikasa touched her neck where her scarf would usually sit. She felt naked without it a while ago, but now, she just felt hollow.

“I feel like… I’m giving you permission.”

Armin didn’t respond.

“I know I don’t need to. But the decision is looming over us, and I feel like the only reason we’ve been only talking this entire time is for my sake. Those two hours are crucial, and one person’s fondness for another person obviously isn’t more valuable than millions of lives,” she whispered almost robotically, as if she rehearsed it. There was an empty look in her eyes.

He looked at her pitifully and got up. He ran his hand through his hair, anxious. He felt a tug on his shirt.

“Armin…” 

She was almost silent, and her breath hitched in her throat.

“We did everything we could, right?”

Tears welled up, as her tone got high pitched, holding back crying. Armin put his hand over hers, and even though they understood each other without words, he gave her a firm, reassuring nod. They looked at each other for a while before she got up too, and wiped her eyes with her sleeve, avoiding eye contact.

Armin belted orders to the nearby soldiers. The 500 metre radius in every direction was to be cleared for the colossal titan’s explosion, due in fifteen minutes. Preparation to begin immediately.

Hange ran out of things to think about. There were only so many trivial things that could take her mind off the current situation. Being on edge for hours made her weak – she experienced being like this before, but this time she felt truly alone. For a significant part of her life, her comrades were always somewhere there. They died one after another, but one person cheated death time and time again, and she got used to him. To think that he could be gone, but she won’t know of it until she gets there, and he died thinking she was dead too… it felt like the plot a tragic novel. 

How pitiful Humanity’s strongest soldier looked, barely walking, bound in bandages and riddled with stitches. Perhaps if he was in top condition like before, they’d both try to take down the colossal titans, and then use the manoeuvre gear to get back on the boat. He would have pushed her in the ocean once her clothes caught fire, and the plane could fly over the sea, and pull them out… or maybe they’d both have died, and she’d have to hear his screams.

Daybreak was fast approaching, meaning she would soon reach her destination.

“Where do you think they’ll find drills out here?” Retorted Jean.

The remains of Eren’s titan were scattered across the beach, and the Survey Corps have spent the last thirty minutes searching through the rubble for any sight of the villain. To no avail.

“We have to check every single leg. He’s like a bug, the umbilical cord could be coming out of any of them,” commanded Armin.

“If your speculations aren’t right… have you thought of a plan B?” asked Levi. “Disgusting, he really does look like a massive centipede,” he said, in a vain attempt to amuse himself.

Armin’s colossal explosion may have done damage, but it didn’t reveal Eren’s position. The head of his titan has been destroyed to bits, he definitely wasn’t in the nape. This must have meant, that using the Warhammer, he was underground, connected by a wire, or an umbilical cord of sorts, to the rest of the creature. Drills and diggers were paramount, but they were a long way from here, and even though some soldiers were sent to retrieve them, in the best case scenario, it would still take hours.  
The weather was pleasant and the morning sun shone brightly, completely unbothered by the fact that the night before was the worst day on Earth. As if Mother Nature laughed in their face, and kept going, as if humans didn’t matter.  
Needing a minute of rest from pushing titan bits around, Levi stood up and squinted his eyes to look ahead at the clear sky, glaring at it, as if offended that the world didn’t mourn with him. It was so bright, he moved his eyes further away from the sun. The ash settled, but he didn’t see any birds nearby. He hasn’t seen any bird since yesterday, in fact.

It was so bright, he moved his eyes further away from the sun.

Wait.

He already did that.

Levi’s eyes widened as he looked at the sky ahead, seeing what looked like a second sun, a burning ball of flames that wasn’t there a few minutes ago.

“Hey… I think you guys should look at that,” he called to the others in disbelief.

They turned around to see where he was pointing. The ball seemed to take the shape of a plane or a bird, and slowly but steadily, flew closer.

His hand slid onto the trigger from his manoeuvre gear.

“I think we found Eren.”

Hange saw the smoke coming from Eren’s massive titan before she saw anything else. The journey was long, and she felt strained. At times, she felt herself losing balance during flight, and her shoulders ached, perhaps from using the wings for too long. If this was where the battle was fought, then who died here? Did they kill Eren? She didn’t think they came to a truce if he was blown up. Who else was dead? Her heart beat so fast again, and it was uncomfortable, the adrenaline’s been keeping her on edge for hours.

After a few minutes, she could make out familiar shapes. She noticed Armin first, because of his bright hair colour. She wasn’t used to eyesight this good, so it felt surreal. Once she was closer, she recognised some more faces. Mikasa was with Armin, Jean and Connie on the other side, and then a shorter figure stood up, revealing their face.

It was _Levi_.

The heaviness she felt in her chest gave way to ecstatic fluttering, as she squealed in awe. That was unmistakeably him, and for a brief moment, she forgot what has happened, and they were younger again, and this was a late summer day like any other.  
Then he noticed her. And everyone else stared at her too.

“If that’s Eren, he must have escaped before the explosion! I don’t know how, but he did it!” Shouted Armin, as everyone’s battle mode kicked in. Except Mikasa’s. She stood there, wide eyed.

“His titan can fly now, and it’s on fire. This is ridiculous,” Levi spat. “He really dares to kill us by burning, just like he did…”

He stopped his sentence there to not get sidetracked by emotion.

“Armin, everyone. We will fight close to the water. If anyone catches fire, someone else will push them into the ocean. Sound good?”

Armin nodded to give him the get go. One blade drew after another, looking straight at the flying creature.

Hange only realised her wings were burning white after a minute or so. She was tired and confused why Levi and the others looked at her so menacingly, she didn’t do anything wrong. She shook her head to clear her mind and focus, which made her shake her wings also, and plunge fiery projectiles ahead of her, onto the ground. She understood now, they must have thought she was a foe. She just had to tell them who she was. 

“It’s Hange! It’s me!”

But it came out as a deathly shriek.  
This titan couldn’t talk.

She knew that look in Levi’s eyes, but it usually softened when he looked at her. It was bursting with hate and disgust, and it broke her heart, because she was so happy to see him. And then she saw him draw his blades.

Levi was out to kill her.

She tried to stop above them frantically, only shooting more projectiles off of her wings. She called, but it didn’t sound human. Levi attached his hook to some tall Eren’s titan remains, and shot up in the air. He was too fast for her. She tried a 180, but he sunk the hook inside the lower part of her titan’s body. Instinctively, she tried to kick him off with her claws, but he dodged her as well. 

He got in front of her.

She shrieked.

He looked her straight in the eyes, and with a guttural scream he sunk his swords in her body, slashing her open, and with one swift motion, cutting open the titan’s nape and grabbing whomever was inside.

Those caramel, glistening eyes were not the ones he expected to see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thankful for the comments, I read every single one once I see an email notification, even if it's been ages since the last chapter, so if you have anything to comment on, please don't be apprehensive to leave feedback, that includes negative feedback as well. This is my first real creative writing endeavour, so I've a lot to learn.  
> It was challenging to come up with an alternate ending to Attack on Titan, but I've finalised in my head what the ending will be.  
> I'm in need of a slow, slow burn Levihan High School AU. Away from sad stuff.   
> People do give Han chan a lot of shit on r/titanfolk because they say she's a terrible commander, but it's not like any other Paradis commander ever had to deal with the end of the world, even Erwin's circumstances were much, much different.


End file.
